The present invention relates to a juvenile seat assembly, and particularly, to a juvenile seat assembly including a safety harness that adjusts to accommodate children of different sizes. More particularly, the present invention relates to a juvenile seat assembly having a crotch strap positioning apparatus.
Juvenile seat assemblies having safety harnesses to restrain children in place are well known. Such juvenile seat assemblies are often included in car seats, child swings, and strollers. Harnesses used in juvenile seat assemblies usually include a number of straps, including shoulder straps and crotch straps.
As the size of a child to be restrained in a juvenile seat assembly changes, either due to growth of the child or due to changes in the thickness of the clothing worn by the child, adjustments in the connection points of the straps to the seat back and seat bottom or adjustments in the length of the straps are sometimes made. Adjusting the harnesses of some conventional juvenile seat assemblies can be a cumbersome, time consuming process. As a result, caregivers of children may forego harness adjustments at the expense of the comfort of the children. Efforts have been made by manufacturers of juvenile seat assemblies to provide harness adjustment mechanisms that are easy and quick to use so that caregivers of children are more apt to make harness adjustments when needed.
According to the present disclosure, a juvenile seat assembly includes a seat bottom, a crotch strap, and a carrier coupled to the seat bottom for movement relative to the seat bottom. The crotch strap is a part of a child-restraint harness included in the seat assembly. The carrier is lockable in a plurality of positions and the crotch strap is coupled to the carrier to move therewith.
The juvenile seat assembly also includes a lock member coupled to the seat bottom. The lock member is movable between a locking position engaging the carrier to prevent the carrier from moving relative to the seat bottom and a releasing position disengaged from the carrier to allow movement of the carrier relative to the seat bottom.
In an illustrative embodiment, the seat bottom is formed to include a channel and the carrier is received in the channel for sliding movement along a path toward and away from a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom. In addition, the lock member is positioned to lie underneath the seat bottom and is coupled to the seat bottom for pivoting movement between the locking and releasing positions.
The illustrative lock member includes a release button that is accessible at a front end of the seat bottom and a locking tab that extends through an aperture formed in the seat bottom. When the lock member is in the locking position, the locking tab is received in a selected one of a plurality of lock-receiving spaces formed in the carrier to lock the carrier in place relative to the seat bottom. By locking the carrier in place on the seat bottom, the location of the crotch strap relative to a seat back in the seat assembly is fixed so as to adjust the child-restraint harness to adapt to the size of a child occupying the seat assembly.
When a user moves the release button upwardly, the lock member pivots from the locking position to the releasing position causing the locking tab to move downwardly out of the selected lock-receiving space. After the lock member is moved to the releasing position, the carrier and the crotch strap are movable relative to the seat bottom so that adjustments in the position of the crotch strap can be made easily by a caregiver. The crotch strap and carrier can be moved closer to the seat back to adjust the harness to accommodate a smaller child and farther away from the seat back to adjust the harness to accommodate a larger child.
According to a first illustrative embodiment, a crotch strap is fastened to the carrier and a buckle is coupled to an upper end of the crotch strap. Tabs coupled to shoulder straps of the child-restraint harness are attachable to and detachable from the buckle. According to a second illustrative embodiment, a harness tab coupled to a lower end of a harness strap is attachable to and detachable from the carrier. In the second embodiment, the carrier is formed to include a slot that receives the harness tab. A slidable lock member of the carrier engages the harness tab to lock the harness tab to the carrier. The slidable lock member includes a release button that, when pressed, allows the harness tab to be detached from the carrier.
Additional features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.